John Wall putting in extra time to work on his jumper

The morning after his NBA debut, John Wall showed up about 45 minutes before practice to work on his jump shot with Wizards assistant Ryan Saunders. Wall learned a lot in the first of what the Wizards expect will be many games with the organization; specifically that teams would rather give him the jumper than let him dart past them for layups.

I won't be able to blow past people every play. (AP Photo)

Dwight Howard mentioned that the scouting report on Wall is that he likes to go left and score in the paint, so the Magic devised a plan to push Wall to go the other way and dropped off him nearly every time he prepared to go left, forcing him to take a shot that Wall has practicing but has yet to get confidence in.

"They were giving him the 15-footer," Coach Flip Saunders said of the Magic.

Teams around the league will follow suit until Wall makes them play on a regular basis. Wall certainly didn't have much success in Orlando, where missed 13 of his 19 shots, with eight of those misses coming from 12 feet and beyond. He was wide open on nearly all of those shots, so he wasn't forcing anything, but there also was a reason he had so much space to shoot.

"I've been working on it all summer, I can make it," Wall said. "When I'm so wide open, I'm hesitating to see if I can shoot a jump shot or shoot a set shot. You can't do that, because when you do that, you're in between two different shots."

Wall knows that he will have to develop a consistent mid-range jumper and during his workout on Friday, he made 50 of 55 shots between 16 and 19 feet. After practice, Flip Saunders pulled Wall aside and worked with him for about 10 minutes. Saunders forced Wall into areas where teams are going to dare him to shoot pull-ups. They repeated the same routine over and over again.

"For him, it's a process," Saunders said. "He's going to have games where he shoots the ball pretty well. He's going to have games where he struggles. That's not something that's going to be a main part of his game, but he's worked on that."

"As an individual, it was tough not making shots," Wall said after the Wizards' 112-83 loss in Orlando. "I have been working on it. Shots are going to start falling sooner or later."

Wall seems to be seriously committed to becoming the best he can be, and that is both exciting and comforting, especially for a fan base that really does need something to get excited about. Pretty incredible seeing the leadership manifested by this 20-year old rookie.

Wall is the type of basketball player that will improve instead of regress. The Wizards organization and team will become better over time with Wall and Leonsis as the primary building blocks. The Wizards standing at the end of the season may not be that bad by default, because with the exception of Miami, Orlando, Boston, Atlanta(sometimes), and maybe Milwaukee the rest of the teams in the east are dreadfully boring sorry watered down squads.

Match ups and style of play does not always correlate from one team to the next. The Magics pummeled the Wizards, the following night the Magics got clobbered by the Heat so when the Heat play the Wizards it will be a complete mauling. Complete fallacy.

Posted by: spades72"

But is that really the question? As I read it, the discussion concerns how well the Wiz match up with the Heat -- the Big Three in particular. I can't think of anyone on the Wiz who could handle LeBron or Wade one on one. I can't think of anybody who can stop Bosh around the basket, either. What's to argue about?

Posted by: Samson151 | October 30, 2010 10:57 AM

@Samson151

I have noticed you've been itching to get into to a debate with me so now here is your chance. Answer me this. The 2007- 2008 Boston Celtics finished the regular season with a record of 66-16 and went on to become the NBA champions. The only team that beat them 3 times during the regular season was the Washington Wizards (3-1) The celtics were 66-16, the Wizards were 43-39, but the Wizards won the season series against the celtics 3 games to 1. Did this had anything to do with who had the most talent or was it more about match ups and style of play???

"Not really. All it means is that if the Wiz had played Miami instead of Orlando, they'd have lost by 50 instead of 30"

Posted by: kalo_rama | October 30, 2010 12:59 AM

You realize that's nonsense, right? There's not a single player on the Wizards roster with a prayer of guarding Lebron or Wade. And if Blatche and McGee couldn't stay in front of Marcin Gortat on his way to the basket, it's unlikely they'd have had better luck with Bosh. Between the three of them they could have easily racked up 70 against the Wizards. Meanwhile, against the defense Miami put up on the Magic, the Wiz would have been lucky to score 70 total as a team.

Posted by: kalo_rama | October 30, 2010 1:22 AM

@Samson151

Since you are in total agreement with the statements above I am willing to make a wager with you that the Wizards will score more than 70 points against the Heat. I am will to go as far as 80 points. Teams take turns beating upon each other all the time and though talent and chemistry are the main ingredients a lot has to do with match ups and style of play.

It could be ugly tonight here in the A-T-L,at least under Eddie Jordan we had a chance of being competitive but now the only question? how large will the opposing team's margin of victory, I think what bothers me more than anything is how far this franchise has sunk even with the new ownership it hasn't improved one iota and it will not as long as Ernie and Flip continue their collective stupidity!!.This roster is full D-league players and NBA wannabe's with the exception of Wall and Arenas when will Leonsis get the message yesterday wasn't soon enough; get it together Ted or risk ailenating what little fan base this franchise has left.

"My argument was never that " the Heat would beat the Wiz by 50 just because Magic beat Wiz by 30 and Heat beat Magic by 20". To even suggest that is idiocy. First of all, the actual number "50" was arbitrary and clearly meant as a form of sarcasm/hyperbole. Second, my argument was that the Heat would likely beat the Wiz by a bigger margin than the Magic because (A) like the Magic the Heat have the ability to play stifling defense that would shut down the Wizards' limited offensive capabilities but (B) unlike the Magic, the Heat also have the ability to dominate offensively because they have 3 guys who can drop 30 on a given night with little effort (and dropping 30 against the Wizards "defense" requires very little effort at all). In other words, the Heat may be nearly as good as the Magic defensively, but are better offensively. Thus a bigger final margin against a Wizards team lacking in both offense and defense."

"Seriously, that can't have been that hard to figure out."

Posted by: kalo_rama

My response to your posts did not mention not one scintilla of any of your arbitrary numbers, so to suggest that I took your statememts literally have no basis whatsoever. What I did state, was that match ups and style of play would be a determinant on the result of the game. But of course, you failed to address what I wrote and instead was more busy defending your own foolishness.

John Wall, don't let the "blur" fool you. Continue to work on(practice) that jumper. "You are new to these NBA players but they will adjust to counter your speed. You don't want to end up with a "problematic" outside shot like that of another "blur" , A.I."
10/18/2010 9:27:58 AM

Mr. Lee, do you use a copy editor, because this article had many obvious bloopers?

"so the Magic devised a plan to push Wall to go the other way and dropped off him nearly every time he prepared to go left, forcing him to take a shot that Wall has practicing but has yet to get confidence in."

"makes them play on a regular basis. Wall certainly didn't have much success in Orlando, where missed 13 of his 19 shots, "

Wizards have a superstar in the making - I still can't believe there was even speculation that Evan Turner was a possible #1 pick. Wall is a stud, with an unbelievable athletic ability - watch him rise up and dunk ALL OVER Jerry Stackhouse:

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